Scrappy ‘Bows fall short

LAS VEGAS » What might have been season-ending embarrassment instead gave rise to spine-building encouragement.

After giving up the game’s first 17 points, Hawaii engaged New Mexico State in a spirited game of chase before ultimately coming up short, 92-81, in a wildly entertaining Western Athletic Conference tournament semifinal on Friday.

The defeat almost certainly closed the Rainbow Warriors’ season at 16-16 — there was no invitation from the CollegeInsider.com Tournament that UH probably would have received with a second upset win in as many days.

Second-seeded NMSU (25-9) was just too good in too many facets of the game, getting five players to score 12 or more points and outrebounding UH 36-22.

Before they were done, though, the sixth-seeded ‘Bows impressed many with their resolve in their final WAC tournament, being down one of their best players in Zane Johnson and having entered the eight-team field on a five-game skid.

"We came into this tournament with something to prove," UH coach Gib Arnold said. "We didn’t win it all, but we competed. As a coach, that’s really special, to look your team in the eye after the game and say, ‘Hey, you were successful tonight.’

"We didn’t end with a win, but we did. These guys are winners."

Hauns Brereton hit a baseline jumper with 10:43 left to cut NMSU’s once-significant lead to one, but Aggies point guard Hernst Laroche answered with a huge 3-pointer and got fouled by senior point guard Miah Ostrowski in the process. He completed the four-point play for a 65-60 lead.

"I’m used to taking those shots in practice," Laroche said. "I feel like I can make those shots."

Both teams agreed afterward that that was where the game turned for good back to NMSU — though it was close to the final minute.

"It felt like a 20-point play," Arnold said.

Several ‘Bows played well in their last hurrah of 2011-12. Freshman guard Shaquille Stokes tied his career high of 21 points, Vander Joaquim scored 17 with three blocks and four steals, and Ostrowski dished a career-high 13 assists in his final game as a UH basketball player.

Brereton had 10 points, including a "SportsCenter"-worthy one-handed posterization (it made No. 2 in SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays) of the Aggies’ 6-foot-10 center, Tshilidzi Nephawe, with 9 minutes left.

That, like everything else UH threw at the Aggies, was shrugged off.

The Aggies fended off a number of mini-runs by UH to advance to today’s WAC championship game against Louisiana Tech.

UH was gunning for its first WAC title game appearance in 10 years, but that appeared out of the question when the Aggies opened things up with a figurative haymaker. They led 17-0, then 22-2, playing stifling defense at one end and getting out in the open floor at the other. It had the makings of NMSU’s 42-point blowout of UH in Las Cruces, N.M., last month.

"We always like to throw the first punch, and I thought our guys did that," NMSU coach Marvin Menzies said. "(UH) had a very high emotional win for them yesterday. We were optimistic that if we could make a statement when the game started with our defense, more than anything, then perhaps we could rattle them. But that didn’t happen. They did a fantastic job of fighting back."

At Arnold’s direction, UH conceded the offensive glass so his team could set its defense against NMSU’s quick attacks.

UH had the deficit down to nine at halftime.

"We had a slow start at the beginning and we couldn’t figure out what was going on," Joaquim said. "They had a fast start, we respect that, and we just kept fighting through it."

Despite shooting 60 percent in the second half and 56.9 percent for the game, UH just could not break through.

NMSU forward Wendell McKines had a game-high 22 points on 9-for-16 shooting, and hit big shots down the stretch.

UH forward Trevor Wiseman (10 points) got a putback to cut it to 76-73 with 4:52 remaining. NMSU scored the next five points and UH got no closer than six the rest of the way.

Louisiana Tech 78, Nevada 73

Trevor Gaskins scored 15 of his 21 points during the Bulldogs’ hot-shooting first half, and fifth-seeded LaTech held on late to stun the regular-season champion Wolf Pack in Friday’s other WAC semifinal in Las Vegas.

The Bulldogs (18-15) face second-seeded New Mexico State in today’s championship game. They became just the first No. 5 seed to reach the finals of the WAC tournament since Hawaii in 2001.

Malik Story led Nevada (26-6) with 21 points, but WAC player of the year Deonte Burton was harassed all night and finished with just five points.